The Story of Everything: A Synopsis of The Urantia Book

Paper 74: Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve had been employed
in the physical laboratories of Jerusem for fifteen thousand years when
they were selected for their mission to Urantia. The volunteer pool
from which they were chosen included the entire senior corps of Material
Sons and Daughters. Adam and Eve were thoroughly instructed concerning
every danger and duty awaiting them on their strife-torn planet.

Leaving behind fifty sons and
fifty daughters, Adam and Eve left Edentia for Earth almost thirty-eight
thousand years ago. After being rematerialized in the Father's temple,
they were greeted by Van, Amadon, and a large audience of supporters.
Adam spoke to the Garden dwellers of his plans for the rehabilitation
of the world. Concurrent with their formal installation as the new rulers
of the world, the broadcast voice of Gabriel decreed that a new dispensation-the
Age of Adam-had begun, and the sleeping survivors from the age of the
Planetary Prince were resurrected on the mansion worlds.

Adam and Eve's second day on
Urantia was spent learning details of the tragic history of the planet.
On subsequent days they toured the garden, addressed the garden assembly,
organized a temporary government, and inspected the various men and
animals. On the seventh day they rested. The fable that our planet was
created in six days was based on this period of time that Adam and Eve
spent in surveying the Garden.

The Garden dwellers wholeheartedly
accepted Adam and Eve as their rulers. After seven years, the Melchizedeks
returned to Jerusem. Van and Amadon, who had been on Urantia for over
four hundred and fifty thousand years, left with the Melchizedeks. The
Material Son and Daughter were alone with their enormous task.

Eve bore sixty-three children
who enjoyed a great appreciation for music, play, and humor. They attended
school until they were sixteen, were betrothed at eighteen, and were
allowed to marry at twenty.

The purpose of the schools
of Eden was socialization. Younger children were taught by their siblings
about healthcare, the golden rule, the relationship of individual rights
to group rights, the history and cultures of the earth races, world
trade, coordination of conflicting duties, play, humor, and competitive
substitutes for fighting. Mornings were devoted to horticulture and
agriculture, afternoons to competitive play, and evenings to developing
social skills and friendships. Public worship was at noon, family worship
at sunset.

For a while all went fairly
well. Adam and Eve tried to teach sex equality and improve worship by
substituting offerings of fruit for animal sacrifice. They fostered
trade relations and manufacturing, and began to establish laws and social
organization. Yet whenever they tried to work outside the Garden, trouble
arose. Caligastia, still present on earth, resisted all plans for the
rehabilitation of society. Although Adam had a difficult task leading
these mixed and mongrel savages in the better way, the more intelligent
of the races looked forward to a future time when they would be permitted
to intermarry with the children of the violet race.